Spacex

Spacex Is Ready To Fly Rockets Again. An Expert Talks About The Reason A Falcon 9 Blew Up Last Year

... accident, the company believes a pocket of liquid, or possibly solid, oxygen trapped against one of the helium bottles ignited, blowing up the bottle and liquid oxygen tank. (Technically, liquid oxygen isn't flammable, but it makes everything else around it ultra-flammable.). Pushing boundaries: Composite tanks and chilly oxygen. Space X's helium bottles aren't made of a single, solid material like aluminum. Instead, a thin layer of aluminum—which helium can't pass through—is used as an inner lining. To keep the thin aluminum from bursting under pressure, it is wrapped with tiny strands of carbon fiber. This design is called a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel, or COPV. COPVs are much lighter than their solid metal counterparts. That makes them attractive for space applications, where every bit of mass matters. On rockets, COPVs commonly hold gases used to open and close propellant valves, ...

Spacex Details Its Plans For Landing Three Falcon Heavy Boosters At Once

... "The action continues to fulfill the U. S. expectation that space transportation costs are reduced in order to make continued exploration, development, and use of space more affordable.". As part of the document, Space X also says it would like to build a Dragon capsule processing facility on the landing zone to support refurbishment of the Dragon 2 spacecraft, designed to carry crew into orbit. The 130-foot-long facility would provide a "temporary" facility for vehicle propellant load and propulsion system servicing. Enlarge / Conceptual layout for Falcon Heavy landing pads. The pad at the right now exists as the main pad at Landing Zone 1. GEAR Inc./Space X. When it originally designed its Landing Zone 1 facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, for the single Falcon 9 first stage booster, the company envisioned the need for one main pad approximately 200 feet across, and four smaller contingency pads, each approximately 150 feet in diameter. The chosen site had enough acreage to accommodate all five pads. Improvements in the rocket's landing navigation guidance system obviated the need for the contingency ...

Would New Port Canaveral Railroad Help Spacex

... building satellites there too. Both of those companies will need plenty of supplies and raw materials for manufacturing, which could also come into Port Canaveral. Space X on the move in Port Canaveral. Spacex on Monday moved a rocket at Port Canavaral - its fourth reusable rocket to be landed and brought back to the Cape. This is another historic moment in the development of reusing rockets. See more videos. “I’m not going to highlight anyone but, as the commercial space industry is growing at the Cape Canaveral AFS, it appears there are other benefits to this rail line that would assist the commercial space industry going forward,” port CEO John Murray said. “There are some other folks out there that are supportive of this route.”. The port’s railroad was controversial last year, when local Brevard County officials and fishermen opposed a route that would require a bridge over ...

A Year Of Highs And Lows

... again for another resupply mission to the ISS and, luckily, stage 1 was unharmed during landing this time. On August 14, Space X sent another communications satellite into orbit for SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation and all was well. Just when things seemed to be on the upswing, Space X was hit with an anomaly  that many considered to be an epic failure. On September 1, during Falcon 9's static fire test for the Amos-6 communications satellite launch mission, an "anomaly" occurred on the launch pad and resulted in the loss of both the vehicle and its payload. It was not only an epic failure but an expensive one at that; however, no one was injured so that should probably count for something. Fourth Quarter. Due to the September 1 AMOS-6 mission failure, Space X has been delaying its next launch until the investigation is complete and a full report could be made. The company, however, considered the possibility of a mid-December ...

Fired Spacex Employee Can Depose Company's President In Lawsuit, Judge Rules

... potentially exploding, but for the potential loss of human life as well, according to his attorneys' court papers. Blasdell complained to Shotwell, to Space X founder Elon Musk and to the company's human resources department that there were potentially dangerous deviations from protocol that his managers were pressuring test technicians to make, his lawyers state in their court papers. Shotwell told Blasdell during an October 2013 meeting that she would investigate his concerns and hire an outside consultant to investigate, according to the plaintiff's attorneys' court papers. Blasdell followed up in early 2014 when he inquired of Shotwell by email whether the consultant had been hired, his attorneys' court papers state. "Ms. Shotwell never responded to plaintiff's inquiry, but instead wrote a separate email to plaintiff criticizing the manner in which plaintiff communicated with management," according to Blasdell's attorneys' court papers. Blasdell was fired in April ...

Spacex In Google Earth

... to return to flight with their first launch since the explosion last September on the launchpad of their rocket carrying the Amos-6 mission. As fans of Space X, we thought this would be a good time to have a look at some Space X related sights in Google Earth. Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, Florida, location of the launchpad explosion. Image captured one month after the explosion. If you switch to ‘historical imagery’ with the 3 D buildings layer turned on, you can see a 3 D model of a Space X rocket on the launch pad. Space X is noted for being able to (some of the time) land the first stage of their rockets either on land or on an autonomous spaceport drone ship. Space Launch Complex 1, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Space X’s east coast landing site. One of Space X’s autonomous spaceport drone ships named ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ in Port of Jacksonville, Florida. One of the drone ships in Port of Jacksonville, Florida as seen in 3 D imagery. We are not certain which as there is no name and the deck layout is slightly different from ‘Of Course I Still Love You’. ‘Of Course I Still ...

Spacex Resumes Space Flights, Xenocs Buys Saxslab, Snolab Bags C$26m

... since August. That was due to happen yesterday, but was postponed until 14 January at the earliest by the firm due to bad weather. Space X is reported to have a backlog of more than 70 missions for NASA and commercial customers. Xenocs buys X-ray-scattering specialist SAXSLAB. Two become one: Xenocs chief executive Peter Høghøj. Xenocs , a nanomaterials analysis company based in France, has bought SAXSLAB , which produces X-ray-scattering equipment. Both companies specialize in small- and wide-angle X-ray-scattering equipment. Peter Høghøj, chief executive of Xenocs, said that the acquisition will "strengthen our [Xenocs] ability to provide innovative solutions". SAXSLAB was founded in 2004 and has bases in both Denmark and the US, thereby broadening Xenocs' global presence. SAXSLAB founder Karsten Joensen and former director Søren Skou will manage Xenocs' US and Denmark offices, respectively. Meanwhile, Scott Barton will become responsible for sales in North America as SAXLAB transfers its business from US-distributor Molmex Scientific to the ...

Nasa Orders More Flights From Boeing, Spacex

... strategy Tuesday for dealing with the risks posed by near Earth objects (NEOs).  The Detecting and Mitigating the Impacts of Earth-Bound Near-Earth Objects (DAMIEN) strategy, developed by an interagency working group, sets out a series of goals regarding the detection of NEOs, development of approaches for deflecting threatening NEOs and emergency procedures in the event of an impact. The strategy document will be followed by an action plan to be updated every three years. [Space Policy Online]. The universe may have slightly less dark matter now than it did early in its history.  Russian astrophysicists studied whether dark matter might be unstable and decay over time by examining data from ESA’s Planck mission. They concluded the Planck data could be best explained if the early universe had about two to five percent more dark matter than it does today, suggesting that a ...

Spacex Eyes January 8th Return To Flight After Finishing Up Accident Investigation

... process that involved broken carbon fibers causing super cold oxygen to ignite. The company says it has identified all of the “credible causes” that may have been responsible for this combustible interplay of materials, and corrective actions have been taken to make sure the same accident doesn’t happen again. Space X was forced to ground all of its vehicles after the accident. Space X was forced to ground all of its vehicles after the accident, which happened in Cape Canaveral, Florida on the morning of September 1 st. The failure occurred as the Falcon 9 was being being fueled for an upcoming static fire test — a routine procedure Space X does before launch to see if the rocket’s engines are working properly. During fueling, the Falcon 9 exploded in a huge fireball, leading to the destruction of the rocket and the communications satellite it was supposed to carry into space. Video of the event revealed that the explosion began toward the top of the rocket, and Space X later narrowed down the source of the problem to the vehicle’s upper oxygen tank. That’s the tank that stores the super cold liquid ...